From the Guardian live reporting thread
There is more coming out from that interview on German radio in which EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that the union’s contract with AstraZeneca contains binding orders.
Demanding a plausible explanation from the drugmaker for delivery hold-ups.
Von der Leyen told Deutschlandfunk radio the best-effort delivery cause in the contract was only valid as long as it was not clear whether AstraZeneca could develop a vaccine.
It appears that she also mentioned two production facilities in Great Britain which she said were intended for the production of the vaccine for the EU,
“How you manage it is up to you,” she added.
Her comments come as it is feared that millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine could be blocked from entering Britain from the EU within days after Brussels said it had to respond to shortages emerging in member states.
Following reports of a lack of doses across the bloc, the European commission announced plans to give national regulators the power to reject export requests.
The development raises concerns over the continued flow of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, for which the UK has a 40m-dose order, from its plant in Belgium.
Officials conceded that a block on the export of vaccines such as that produced by Pfizer/BioNTech in Belgium for the UK was possible. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock Photograph: REX/Shutterstock